On Mount Hood — literally

Whenever I‘ve climbed Mount Hood, one of my goals with my pack has always been to go fairly light. Maybe a bigger camera, an extra layer or two for the weather, a little more food. But for the most part, the bare essentials usually has done me just fine.

Hauling a book to the summit? I don’t think it’s ever crossed my mind.

But that’s just what my colleague at the Portland Business Journal, photographer Cathy Cheney, did last month when she climbed to the top of Hood for the American Lung Association’s annual Climb for Clean Air.

In a post for the Business Journal, Cheney wrote about how the opportunity to climb Hood had come to her out of the blue, at a time when she was up for a challenge and ready to step out of her comfort zone. So she signed up, trained for almost six months, and found herself standing atop the 11,245-foot summit of Mount Hood — and raising $3,400 for the ALA along the way — in early June.

While she was getting herself in shape for the climb, Cheney also picked up a copy of On Mount Hood, which I signed for her and used to wish her well.

The morning after her successful climb, Cheney sent me a photo I never would have expected:

Apparently she had room in her pack for the copy of the book. It made it to the summit with her, but 40-mile-an-hour winds prevented prolonged photo ops at the top, so this one’s from a little ways down from the summit.

Even so, I can almost guarantee On Mount Hood has never been that high on Mount Hood before.

Now it has. Congrats, Cathy!